The End And On To The Beginning

— August 25, 2015

So I guess this is a good time to let you all know that I will be shutting down the paid section of this site. Within the last month, I have found that I have been having less and less free time and I haven’t been able to produce as much, or as genuine content as I would like. And sure, I suppose I could continue to chug along but it would really be at like half-speed and that wouldn’t be fair to you. My writing and my obligations to the people who follow my writing are like one of the only things I actually take seriously and I couldn’t in good conscious just spit out a bunch of half-assed articles.

Tell me what will happen, Chris!
Well, for starters I will continue to write on this site just not as often. There is a pressure that is a bit heavy knowing there are people who paid good money and expect me to step up to the plate and write something of substance almost every single day. While that pressure is good (we will get to that in a second), it also is tough when I am out all day and driving around and I walk through the door at like 1am half asleep and trying to produce content that I think is worthy of your time. I’m not saying that woe is Chris, he is tired (although it is kind of true because I’m an old man with a rapidly greying head of hair) but because I feel like I have gotten out what I needed. I feel good about what I have written over these months and I actually feel accomplished. But at this point, if I was to continue with the rabid frequency I feel like I would be over-painting a picture. So yes, from now on this site will be free but only those with a subscription will have access to all the back articles.

Now back to that pressure…
The first book I ever wrote took me over a year to complete. The second took 16 months. Both of those books hovered around 35k words which means I was writing around 2000 words a month. A month. To put this in context, I currently average 1200 words an article. The books I have written in the past few years have been around 55k, so counting the writing I am proud of, I have written three books since I began this site. And with you paying $5.99 a month, it lit a fire under my ass. It forced me to write through sad nights and lonely nights and busy nights and blow off plans with friends so I could sit in a coffeeshop and mash away at the keys in order to help some people make sense of things like relationships, dating, and breakups. Along the way, I learned even more about myself and found that the more I wrote, the better I communicated. And I received your emails. Many of you wrote to me and that gave me even more enthusiasm to create. And for a solid seven months, I wrote my ass off. More than I have ever written in any point of my life. And it was all because I knew there were people out there, most of you I don’t even know, who wake up and come to this site curious as to what I managed to write about at 1am while my eyes were closing. So if anything, thank you. Thank you for forcing me outside of my comfort zone. I know it was only $5.99 but that small amount made me feel obligated to you. My blogs were never really concentrated efforts with an overall theme. They were rants and ridiculousness that may or may not have been helpful, hurtful, or entertaining. But with your subscriptions, I became more focused and alert. I didn’t have the luxury of “writers block” because I knew there were people who gave up their latte money so Chris could write and entertain them. And that was you. So yes, thank you.

In the next month I will be releasing my next book, A Thousand First Dates. It will be 100 of my favorite articles I have written and it will be broken up into three categories: Dating, Relationships, and Breakups. When you see it all together it will make more sense. And as a person who has always been a fan of physical books, there is something to be said for throwing a book in your bag or your purse and knowing it is there too keep you company at any time. So if there was something that struck you over the past seven months that you wanted to re-read, or you wanted a friend to read, or you always wanted your boyfriend or girlfriend to read, well, now the book version will be available.

I will keep you all informed as the days progress but right now it is in the second stage of editing so hopefully we will be finished and can move into the design portion as soon as possible. I am taking a couple trips out of town next month and I would really like to have it to the printer before I leave for South America because I won’t be able to do much communicating while I’m over there trying to not get malaria.

I guess I just wanted to say thank you. I mean, I knew it would be a tough challenge to consistently write essentially about one subject almost every week but I think it made me a stronger writer and helped me learn to communicated with my audience in a more effective manner. And I couldn’t have done that without your belief and faith in who I am and what I do.

About author

Christopher Gutierrez is the author of several books on love, sex, and relationships. He also hosts a weekly podcast, The Deep End, in addition to running Deadxstop Publishing. Since 2006, he has given hundreds of speakings at colleges, coffee houses and universities all over the world.